Battleworld is a fictional patchwork planet appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It serves as the setting in Secret Wars comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. There have been three Battleworlds in total. The first was created by the Beyonder, the second was an imitation created by the Stranger pretending to be the Beyonder, and the third was created by Doctor Doom by stealing the power of the Beyonders.

Publication history

The first Battleworld debuted in Secret Wars (1984) #1, and was created by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. The second Battleworld debuted in Beyond!, and was created by Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins. The third Battleworld debuted in Secret Wars (2015) #2, and was created by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić.

Fictional planet biography

First Battleworld

The Beyonder merged dozens of fragments from many planets (including a suburb of Denver, Colorado, from Earth), to create Battleworld, intended to provide an unfamiliar environment where all contestants could use their powers to the fullest. Many peoples, both alien and human, were brought along "for the ride" by this method; it was because of this that Spider-Woman II was on Battleworld, as was Zsaji, the healer, who had brief romances with both the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four and Colossus of the X-Men. In the aftermath of Secret Wars, the planet became infected with cosmic energy when the Beyonder reclaimed his stolen power from Doctor Doom. This led to a "wish fulfillment" phenomenon whereby force of will could alter reality; for example, repairing Captain America's unbreakable shield or allowing Mister Fantastic to create a way to take them quickly home. This is may be due to the Beyonder's nature as an incomplete Cosmic Cube, which allows the wielder to alter reality by force of will, or was an aspect of the "heart's desire" promised by the Beyonder and granted to the winners of the Secret Wars. All the heroes left the planet, except for Ben Grimm. He stayed behind because he was able to change to and from his human form while on the planet's surface; his adventures were recounted in his own side-series while She-Hulk took his place in the Fantastic Four. After Ben returned home—he had defeated Ultron and slain his manifested dark side Grimm the Sorcerer— the planet had no more reason to exist and broke apart. It is unknown whether all pieces returned to their home planets; the fragment of Colorado was ferried back to Earth with its citizens and the Secret Wars' villains by Molecule Man.

Second Battleworld

A mock Battleworld appeared in the miniseries Beyond!. It was constructed by the Stranger posing as the Beyonder for the purposes of studying various combatants from Earth under the guise of battle. This faux Battleworld was destroyed at the end of the miniseries by the departure of the irate Stranger with Gravity holding it together long enough for his group to escape at the cost of his life. Gravity was later resurrected by Epoch as the new Protector of the Universe.

Third Battleworld

A third Battleworld appeared in the Secret Wars (2015). Before the incursions destroyed the Multiverse, Doctor Doom, the Molecule Man, and Doctor Strange had defied the godlike entities behind the catastrophe: the Beyonders. Doctor Doom used a secret weapon made up of a multitudinous number of Molecule Men to defeat these Beyonders and usurp their omnipotence for himself. Afterwards, he salvaged the remaining realities and merged them into Battleworld, made in his own image and filled with mindwiped residents who worshipped him as God Emperor. In truth, it was actually the Molecule Man who had absorbed the Beyonders' power and Doom was being lent it. To hide this, Doom kept the Molecule Man hidden away and claimed that he had died. Battleworld was divided into domains which are ruled by an appointed "Baron" or a "Baroness"; while most domains have the ability to interact with each other, the borders of each domain are clearly defined and travel between different domains is discouraged as it requires special dispensation from the local Baron or from God Emperor Doom himself. Only the Deadlands (which contains the Marvel Zombies), Perfection (which contains the Ultron Sentinels), and New Xandar (which contains the (Annihilation Wave) are separated from the rest by the Shield (a giant version of Ben Grimm) because each contains threats that if loosed would destroy the other domains. Battleworld is enforced by the Thor Corps who serve as Battleworld's police force who answer to God Emperor Doom. Battleworld is orbited by a small Sun, in fact the Human Torch, consigned to the role for acting against Doctor Doom. Knowhere acts as Battleworld's moon. Besides these two and Battleworld itself, there were originally no more celestial bodies in its universe until Singularity, a mysterious young girl who actually represents a pocket universe that gained sentience during the multiversal collapse, appears to give her life to save the citizens of Arcadia from a horde of Zombies which made the stars appear in the sky. This Battleworld would eventually collapse after God Emperor Doom's Beyonders' power was transferred to Reed Richards, who was considered by Doom himself and Molecule Man to be more worthy, and rectified the artificial reality. As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, it is revealed that the reality where Battleworld was fashioned was identified as Earth-15513 and became a distorted portion of time and space after the destruction of the planet, however due to Battleworld's reality having been the epicenter of this Multiversal renewal, it became rich in a substance known as Iso-8, a material identified as the byproduct of creation itself. When the Elders of the Universe of the restored Earth-616 realized that the Multiverse had endured a death and a rebirth, the Collector and Grandmaster discovered the remnants of Battleworld and resolved to fight for the possession of the Iso-8 and used the broken shell as the arena (known as Battlerealm) for their Contest of Champions, a competition where several individuals, taken from Battleworld and the reborn Multiverse, fought to the death on behalf of each Elder. The highest prize was the Iso-Sphere which contained within the Power Primordial, the concentrated and most powerful form of the Iso-8. After assuming control of the Power Primordial that the Grandmaster and Collector were competing for, the Battleworld version of Maestro recreates Battleworld to its previous form as he had previously vowed that he would become the God-King of Battleworld. To combat the remaining players, Maestro summoned the remnants of the Avengers and Thunderbolts from an alternate reality where Iron Man became President of the United States after winning the superhuman civil war as well as summoning Sentry of Earth-1611 to deal with the remaining Contest of Champions competitors. When the Iso-Sphere was stolen from Maestro by Outlaw, he used its power to banish Maestro from Battleworld and teleport the contestants to wherever they wanted to be. As a consequence of Outlaw wishing that the Contest of Champions to end, the Iso-Sphere shattered. A group of the contestants decided to remain in Battleworld, forming the Civil Warriors to guard the Iso-8 and the shards of the Iso-Sphere.

Known locations

First Battleworld's locations

Third Battleworld's locations

The following is a list of the domains and the Marvel Comics event titles that are their basis or reimagining as fully revealed on Marvel Comics' Interactive Battleworld map in Secret Wars #2:

In other media

Television

Video games

Miscellaneous